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Weston Brewing Company

Midwest Living Review

Lisa Waterman Gray

For $10 and a couple of hours, this tour and beer tasting is well worth the money and you won't find many cellars like these.

Brewing operations have taken place here, off and on, since 1842. Today, Weston Brewing Company (WBC) has many elements under a single umbrella, from active brewing operations and a beer garden to a thriving Irish pub and a full-service restaurant. And Saturday tours at WBC are a bargain. They begin in the brewing and packaging building, where enormous fermentation tanks and highly mechanized bottling machines share space with hundreds of full cases that rise towards the ceiling; many with raucous, multi-colored labels created by a single artist. The next stop was O'Malley's, home to WBC's original lager cellars, with the deepest one plunging nearly 60 feet below ground level. They were hand-dug and rocked, largely by slave labor, and also served as an ending point for the Underground Railroad. The stone walled lager cellar was the shallowest, while the secret cellar, hidden beneath padlocked wooden stairs, was dug out from massive debris about 2 1/2 years ago. In the middle cellar, a large screen television delighted sports fans, while a musician played Celtic and beer was flowing in the bustling lowest cellar. The tour ended with beer tasting, from WBC's 2010 Gold Medal winner, Drop Kick Ale, to summer seasonal brew, SunRye's Ale and Prototype Stout. For a great taste of Weston's brewing history, be sure to tour Weston Brewing Company.